How Many Hearts??

I’ve begun to lose track of how may hearts there are to open. (laughs) A few years ago, I wrote about the 4 hearts, then added one to it:

1 – the physical heart in the left chest
2 – Anahata, the heart chakra we meet on the rise of kundalini Shakti
3 – Hrit, the heart sub-chakra above the physical heart.
4 – the “high heart” or “soul thrill” sub-chakra behind the clavicle, between heart and throat.
5 – Hridaya, a higher octave of the heart chakra that opens during the later descent during God Consciousness. (sometimes also referred to as a 10th chakra)

13 Responses to How Many Hearts??

I have heard people like Bhagawan Nityananda and his teacher Sivananda Paramahamsa say that the home of the Self is located inside the head between the eyebrows. Other people have described it as being in the heart area.

Do you have an understanding of why they describe it differently?

I understand that the Self is not in one particular place, but maybe it has a primary entrance through a place in the body.

Hi N
Yes, the Self or Atman aka self-interacting consciousness is universal and thus not located in one place. And yet, at it’s highest, we recognize that Atman is aware universally and at every point within itself. One of those points can be said to be what is experiencing here, in this body.

There is a thread that comes in the top of the head and feeds the chakras. Depending on our relationship with those centers, we may experience the Self most easily in one or another.

In your first example, the witness value is most easily noticed and experienced as being in the 6th or third eye chakra. As it’s also the center of subtle seeing, it may well be considered the “location” of the Self, where Self “sees” itself most obviously.

On the other hand, the heart chakra is where the jiva (soul) resides during the life. The heart is a junction and fulcrum point that is key. We can most easily feel the Self here.

In other words, if we’re a seer, we may lean to the first. If we’re more heart oriented, the second.

This also may relate to where someone is in the post-awakening descent process. With Self-Realization, the “head” is more dominant for some. With God Consciousness, the heart is more dominant. With Unity, Self is recognized in the world so there is less of a localization and we’re less inclined to point here for the Self. Here is just an aspect of it.

While Unity may have an associated gut release and Brahman a root grounding, they’re less oriented this way, so head and heart are the more prominent “locations” for the Self to be known.

Hi N
See how you ask if they were “respectively primarily bhakti and jnana oriented?” after saying you don’t think they’d be “that influenced by their own subjective orientation.”

Those are subjective orientations. Everyone has specific laws of nature emphasized which will bring unique perspectives. Put another way, we’re each unique points of view or perspectives of the whole. Not separate but distinctive. We don’t stop being human when we wake up but we become progressively less confined by individuality.

Well – my point was that it could seem that they didn’t let their own orientation colour their perspective, since for instance a stronger bhakti orientation would seem to favour a stronger emphasis on the heart.

And to be clear, it is not my intention to say that it is one way or another, but I do find it interesting how deeply awake people like those can have different views – especially if it doesn’t defend their own subjective orientation.

No, not forgotten nor experienced. The Kundalini Vidya tradition describes the manas or mind point as being on the right side, roughly opposite Hrit, #3 above. This also relates to the Fleur de Lis I linked to above and the intuitive vs intellectual brain.

I have noticed some people do experience this a bit differently and occasionally there are people where centers are arranged a bit differently. Perhaps the Hrit and Manas may be flipped, for example. Have no idea what the case was with Ramana.

Where we are in reality determines how we experience it. This is true through each of the stages of enlightenment but in all other areas of life too. A 2 year old experiences the world differently than a 10 year old. A dog experiences differently than a lizard. And so forth.